paris_texas

What more can be said about this masterpiece. Robby Muller is on his shit in this one. Every single shot is a masterpiece.

Historical context here - this movie was apparently pretty important. It was a precursor to what we know as 'indie' movies now. Introspective themes, artistic cinematography, sparse soundtracks. You don't need to take my word for it, there's plenty of stuff out there explaining the importance of this flick.

I'm just writing down why I personally liked it so much. This is the story of Travis regaining his memories after a traumatic experience and cobbling the pieces of his broken family together in the process. He is aided by his brother and his wife. Harry Dean Stanton's performance as Travis is gut wrenching.

Travis believes he was conceived in Paris, Texas, and hopes to return there some day. Intentional or not, there is a French theme in this western movie, including his brother's wife Anne, who is straight up French. Accent and everything. Going into this film knowing the context above about this movie being a western trope with French film aesthetics, I was surprised at how literal it was sometimes. The film truly is Paris / Texas.

Robby Muller's cinematography went hard as hell. He was absolutely locked in and I couldn't look away - the visuals propelled the pace in some cases. I could watch a guy walking down the street forever if it were shot by Muller (and honestly there is a lot of walking down the street in this movie. it's kinda the point).

Yup.

I know those pics are a little spooky, but they play out with so much emotion and beauty. The film is heartwarming and you are desperate for these characters to get what they desire so much.

Silences and spaces are instrumental in this storytelling. Travis walks across vast spaces and in his most critical moments between himself and others, he paints vast silences. Long reflective pauses in dialogue push the viewer to fill the space with their own thoughts, as we are so wont to do in any conversation. When Travis finally speaks to Jane again, we are literally in his seat. He can see her but she can't see him (or us), and we have a conversation with her through him. His lengthy pauses are our lengthy pauses and it makes you want to scream something more just to help them through it.

"Every man has your voice."

The plot is sparse but it would be worse if it were any more complicated. This is a story about discovering characters discovering themselves. This thing is awesome. 5/5 10/10 whatever.